Lost Dragon

Just to reiterate some of Frye's contradictions:
 
Development - has claimed:
6 weeks - as quoted in the book, Racing The Beam (pg. 67)
5 months - as quoted in the April 1998 Next Generation article
6 months - as quoted in the documentary Stella At 20 - 
(12 min in)
4K vs 8K - in the same Next Gen article, Frye mentioned 8K ROMS weren't available when he started programming it.  VCS Asteroids came out in July/August 1981 and was the first 8K VCS game released.  The bank-switching technique was developed (but not put into production) 2 years before, for Video Chess.  In this thread (http://atariage.com/forums/topic/232660-pac-man-review-from-1982/page-8), Goldberg claims to quote Tod from a Facebook conversation they had regarding the story about him being offered use of an 8K ROM for Pac-Man, which is something Rob Zdybel said happened in Once Upon Atari:
  Goldberg: Were you offered to move to 8K for Pac-Man towards the end of coding for it?   Frye: Nope. 8k wasn't even an option until after Pacman coding was complete.  I did have a meeting after Pacman came out, to assess the possibility of a quick revision with less flicker, if we used 8k as an option.   Goldberg: So where did the claim that you originally asked for 8K come from?   Frye: It came from thin air. I never considered 8k. rom was not really an issue. ram was.   Rob Zdybel, Frye's co-worker and office mate at the time, claimed as far back as the late 1990s in Howard Scott Warshaw's Once Upon Atari that Frye absolutely asked for 8K during the project.  Rob was interviewed twice by Randy Kindig of ANTIC: The Atari 8-bit Podcast.  The first one was in June 2016:  https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-184-rob-zdybel-star-trek-missile-command-bug-hunt
 
At 1 hour and 5 minutes in, he briefly talks about Tod Frye and mentions, "Tod's changed a lot over the years.  Tod's now denying stories that, I don't know, man... he's saying he never asked for more than 4K for Pac-Man.  I was there when you did", to which Frye apparently replied, "That's okay, maybe I don't remember that one."   Popularity - Frye also stated, "Pac-Man wasn't a particularly big game.  'Pac-Man fever' hit between the start and the finish of the project."   PuckMan was released in Japan in May 1980 and the Midway Pac-Man version in October 1980.  Working backwards, VCS Pac-Man came out late March 1982, and production took a good 10 weeks (2.5 months, so Tod likely finished it no later than December 1981 (since the game's copyright date is 1981 which reflects when programming was completed).  Go back 5 months at most for programming, so let's say he started no later than July 1981.  So since October 1980, Pac-Man wasn't a huge hit by the following summer?  A friend of mine remembers the Tomy and Entex handhelds coming out almost immediately together and Coleco's arriving quite a bit later (all in 1981).  The earliest ad for Odyssey2 K.C. Munchkin I could find from my area was December 21st, 1981 (attached); it was reviewed in the March 1982 issue of Electronic Games.  Also, Buckner and Garcia's song was released December 1981 (and the album in January 1982). 
 
Colored background - In a keynote from the 2015 Portland Retro Gaming Expo, Frye states he wish he had made a black background with a blue maze, but claims Atari had a rule against black backgrounds because it would have burned the maze into the CRT (apparently this rule didn't apply to space games...).  This makes no sense since Atari touted the anti-burn-in effects of the VCS from day one, plus Tod included the color cycling code routine in his Pac-Man game!  And I've never heard any other Atari VCS programmer state such a requirement, either.  The story I heard back then was that Pac-Man had a colored background and muted colors, to help make the flickering monsters less noticeable (and they were relabeled as ghosts because of their flickering, which was more logical to accept than having flickering monsters).
 

My laptop works great, but it has a strange issue with pressure being applied anywhere on the frame of the laptop, so I have to be careful when typing about resting my hands.   It will basically act like I clicked the mouse, which will then make whatever text I'm typing to start appearing in random places.  (wherever the cursor happens to be)

Hi Atari IO Friends!!
 
In one of my YouTube videos (I think) I mentioned having an old Compaq laptop that I was wanting to get going someday.  After reading RickR's post on his classic laptop I got inspired to try to get mine going again.  The sole reason was to just see if it could be done.  Keep in mind that this laptop was found on Shopgoodwill for $5 about six years ago and came with no power supply and no hard drive.  
 
So where did I get the power supply and hard drive?  I was given not too long ago a Compaq Presario laptop that was suppose to be running Windows XP as its operating system.  When I got it someone tried to put Ubuntu on it.  Unfortunately Ubuntu did not like the system at all and wouldn't even boot past the Ubuntu title screen.  Another issue with it was something that I never could figure out.  Any slight pressure by picking it up or resting palms on the palm rest area would cause the machine to simply lock up.  After a while that got really annoying and I feared that something would eventually short out.  And it's a shame, too, because the machine is in great physical condition.  Maybe someday I will take a crack at trying to figure out what is going on.
 

[Compaq Presario Laptop]
 
So, in order to get the Armada up and running I would need a power supply, hard drive, a copy of Windows 98, drivers for any installed hardware, and a bit of luck and some old school know-how.  First things first...a power supply and hard drive.  
 
After some doing some thinking I developed a brain storm...I looked at the power supply used on the Presario.  To my surprise it matched what the Armada required.  I plugged it in and VIOLA!!  The computer came on as soon as I pressed the power button.  Then I thought some more...what if the hard drive in the Presario was what the Armada required also?  They are pretty much from about the same time period...only a year or two separate them.  Out came the screwdriver and the screw hiding the Presario's hard drive.  To my surprise the hard drive was also what the Armada required.  Yep...you guessed it, in the Armada went the hard drive.
 
Now comes the really hard part...finding Windows 98 SE (what the system originally had on it) and a Windows 98 Boot Disk.  For those not familiar with how this works or installing a Windows OS, modern Windows OSes basically set everything up for you automatically.  All you have to do is pretty much point and click on what storage device (hard drive or SSD) you want Windows to go on.  Before XP, however, hard drives had to be partitioned and formatted manually by use of command prompt utilities before they could even be seen by the computer.  The two files that do this are known as FDISK and FORMAT respectively.  And with Windows 98 the for-sure way to get those, and to get a computer to boot up just enough to perform those tasks, is with a floppy disk known as a boot disk.  On Windows 95/98 the boot disk also provides CD-ROM support to a point.
 
I found a website called AllBootDisks that provided a self-executing image of the original Windows 98 SE boot disk...so I downloaded it and made me a temporary boot disk.  Now that that was done I needed Windows 98 SE itself.  A bit of a disclaimer here:  I don't, in any way shape or form, promote piracy of any commercially made for-profit software of any kind, period.  Whether it's homebrew or not.  Only freeware, shareware, public domain software should ever be considered legal to obtain freely.  But, in my case, I needed Windows 98 SE and since that was what was originally on it, and the fact that the computer still had a product key sticker, that is what I went after.  I never could find any Armada M300 restoration discs online anywhere.
 
I did find a great resource for older OSes in ISO image formats.  A website called WinWorld has almost every old-school operating system you could ever need.  Everything from MS-DOS, Atari DOS, Windows, Apple, and more are there.  That is where I found Windows 98 SE.  Yea, I know, I contradicted myself.  As old as some of these computers are, and knowing that their original restoration discs are most likely lost somehow, this is about the only option that is available for restoring these old computers.  And Windows 7 can burn ISO images without needing any extra software.
 
Power, a hard drive, a boot disk, and Windows 98 SE in hand means the fun part begins.  It took about an hour alone to partition and format the hard drive (a 27 GB hard drive) and another 30 minutes or so for Windows 98 to install.  Talk about bringing back old memories.  Once Windows was done doing its thing I did the next step...making sure all the correct drivers were installed.  Nope.  As expected Windows 98 did not have the proper drivers for the video card and nothing for the sound card.  It had resorted to a standard video driver and ignored the sound completely.  So off to find the drivers for the computer.
 
To my surprise HP actually still has the drivers for this laptop available.  Why is that a surprise?  This computer was made before HP acquired ownership of Compaq.  All I needed to do was get the two drivers that were missing.  After installing them the system was finally complete and fully functional.  It was ready for me to do whatever I wanted to do with it.
 
Now that I have it up and running I don't know exactly what to do with it.  I mean I have some older PC games on CD that simply don't play on Windows 7 or Vista systems at all or without issues.  The few that I have tried also don't seem to like the Armada well either.  It does have a ATI Rage Pro mobile graphics processor but it is not capable of performing 3D graphics at all.  Not exactly sure why they stripped it down other than maybe to save on power requirements.  
 
The first game I have tried are Microsoft's Train Simulator which didn't display text properly and it was completely hard to make out what the text said.  Might need to change the graphics settings...who knows.  I also tried the original SimCity for Windows which played very well.  I also tried SimTheme Park but had issues with some of the introduction videos.  I tried to play Luxor 2 which said it did support Windows 98 systems but wouldn't load at all once installed.  I did get a DOS game to play called Transport Tycoon which I had not seen in decades.  It was nice to play it again.  I still want to try my Age of Empires II if I can ever find the disc as I am not sure where I put it.  
 

[Compaq Armada After Windows Install]
 

[specs as reported by DirectX by going to RUN and typing DXDIAG]
 
This laptop really looks hardly used at all.  It does have the docking bay where most of the connections and external drives (floppy and optical) are located.  It also has one USB port but most likely not of the USB 2.0 variant.  Some old school ports are here like a serial and parallel port.  Once removed from the docking station the system is stuck with whatever is on the hard drive and inserted in the PC card slot.  And...the battery holds a charge!  I got 2 hours of use out of it before having to charge it again.
 
That's it for now.  Any suggestions on what to do with it or any abandoned software I can find for it games or otherwise I would like to know about it. 
 
 

Not sure if it's global warming or a water ghost in my basement, but I need to move my stuff upstairs and not take up as much space as I already do( with my Star Wars, Gundam & DC statues collection).
 
So I'm converting a closet to hold some of my treasures.
 
https://youtu.be/-AL4csfMVZw

Was watching some scrubs this morning and this scene happened. When scrubs first aired it was my favorite show
 

Before you see Homecoming in the theaters cheeck out Spider-Man on the 2600... if you got what it takes.
 
http://www.atari.io/spiderman-atari-2600-7800-ave/

I'm not Atari Jaguar fan if I'm being honest here, but regardless of a console I took no interest in these reveals of discovery about the machine truly piece allot of missing links to the possible downfall of a machine that truly wasn't market correctly as well as given the games it possibly deserved from reading this stuff and other posts here at Atari IO.
 
All I will say is this Kieren Hawkens the free lance writer if that's what you've to think he is..where the hell was your research while this was in existence? , how was it that you couldn't retrieve the missing links of information which now appear to turn your Imagintec article for Retro Gamer into a pamphlet piece? Compared to what has being uncovered here? Is that supposed to be what a retro gaming article journalist job is to uncover everything associated with an article your writing and being paid for? For your sake I truly hope none of your employers see stuff like this posted as in a way this makes you look like money for old rope here fella, no offence but putting a story together or article works best and informative to the reader when it's 100% researched not 60% or less
 
I'm sorry you can't reply to this post Kieren as with you being banned here, but if you read this. This is not a sucker punch to you in any way, rather than a polite advice to you and your work that to be shown up countless times on information you've uncovered yourself as missed when lost dragon clearly has found even more information in relation to what you've being paid for as the WHOLE STORY when it isn't, well it's a let down to be honest, so as I read many articles you've written to be very good I can't but help think is this the full story here or is there more? When I read posts like this..
 
@Lost Dragon, commendations again to you and source for these informative and hole filling posts to companies profiles and happening others simply failed to obtain and with that you've made a majority of us experts on the subject including Mr.Hawkens hopefully thank you.

Just a guess but others have already probably suggested what I am about to mention.  The CDI was similar, and more popular, than the VIS system I have.  And more portable apparently.  It would have made a great information system on the go.  So I would speculate that the system in question was used to pinpoint areas of interest for tourists.  The trackball was most likely used as a computer mouse to point and click on areas of interest.  The system could then give more information and show images for areas of interest.
 
The NTSC version of the same system in the red case can fetch high amounts in the $150 ~ $200 range.  It's a rare system.  And to see this one that looks to have been kept in mint condition thanks to the red case I would expect to only add to the value.  While it had some games here in the U.S. it was really sold more as an educational and informational system, similar to the VIS I have.  I still remember the late night commercials on TV trying to sell the Philips CDI for $500 bundled with some software.  It's a rare breed of a system similar to the VIS but, as I have learned, the interest might be only for the most serious of game system collectors.    

I guess, this was made for salesmen presentations. To use a toploader for that just makes sense. The CD on the photograph is certainly made for tourists, who wants to visit Eindhoven, a city in the Netherlands.  Maybe this briefcase was an equipment of a software salesman, who had presented his software at customer's shops or offices. E.g. there was a CDi-program for driving schools, which was available until 2009.

My guess would be that it was made for a specific piece of software for some specific purpose.  The key is to figure out what software used that controller. 

Hey gang, trying to solve a mystery here and I thought I'd bring it to the forum and try to figure it out. So today I was at Pixelvault games run by my friend Armando and he had the strangest item Ive seen in the store so far. This was a red plastic briefcase that held a CDI 450 and a track ball controller, along with the power cord that had a euro plug and some interactive game. The case was not amateur work, this was milled to spec and almost perfect. Here is the mystery - Why would anyone go to the trouble to do this for a CDI? Just kidding, not really but second, Could this have been what a salesman would have brought in to show off the system? What do you think something like this is worth?
 
Would love to hear your thoughts.

Yeah I might have to think about that. Right now I'm going over some really great games so it's easy to point out how well these games work. But believe me when the time comes I will be honest and fair. The great thing is I can actually speak from a point of view of actually owing these games when they came out, I'm not just a collector that is talking about pick ups, I actually had to feel the sting of buying a dud game and had to live with it.  
But if we want to talk about best versions of Beast we should talk about the Turbo Duo version . But I do think the Lynx version is very very good.
 
I will be ending the Arcade port block on Lynx Lounge with Hard Driving... So yeah, ill have a few things to say about that.

That is really cool!  One of my favorite female game characters.

Not my video but I thought it was cool. 
 
Cool work in progress DOOM mod injects METROID into DOOM !  
 

 
Description -
 
Published on Jan 20, 2015
Someone managed to stick everyone's favorite Metroid bounty hunter into DOOM, because reasons. This is how you solve a demon hell-spawn problem like Samus Aran.
 
Find the WAD here! - http://www.moddb.com/mods/metroid-dreadnought

I love Sky Skipper - but its awful on the 2600 

WOW!  Nice ones. 

I love me some Crypts of Chaos!

What a great score! That feeling is so awesome! Congrats!

Just finished eating breakfast on our cape cod vacation and saw an interesting store (Greg's used books), figured I'd kill some time while my wife went into a shoe store. Place was very cool, other than used books they had some records, movies, board games and best of all games. Picked up these carts, all pretty rare. It's not often I find carts I dont have in the wild, especially this many. Owner was very cool also.

This was done last year but you get the idea. Few games here and there have been added but essentially this is my room of fun for the whole family!
 

Or, "Why I Can't Camp Out for Toys Anymore".
 
And, no, my home is not even close to what's described here & yes, there really is nothing here. But it is truly beautiful & special. I doubt there are many "true" communities that exist that can compare to the 250 of us who live here year-round.
 
http://nypost.com/2017/06/28/the-secret-new-york-island-you-need-to-buy-into/

The game was released last March but the game was never completed.
 
https://www.engadget.com/2017/03/15/cancelled-90s-arcade-fighter-primal-rage-ii-released-online/

This Coleco fiasco is actually making ATARI, of all things, seem like a 100% legitimate business.

Fix-It Felix Jr.
Arcade
Difficulty: Default
High Score: 33,150
June 27, 2017

So I was guilty of having this... um... game